Australian online lender SocietyOne is celebrating its fifth year in business with its first loan issued in August 2012; in June 2017 the platform reported cumulative originations of $300 million and since inception has helped over 13,000 customers; the firm says it has plans for expanding to new areas of lending over the long-term and will seek to obtain a 2% to 3% share of the $100 billion consumer finance market. Source
Shareholders and regulators have approved Sichuan XW Bank as the new name for one of China's newest online banks; Sichuan XW Bank is supported with capital by Xiaomi, an electronics and home appliances manufacturer; its leading competitors in the online banking market in China will be WeBank and MYBank. Source
Speaking at StartCon in Sydney, Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Atlassian, shared his thoughts on the inefficient banking industry in Australia; some of the major problems are the lack of ability to access the data and the ease of being able to switch banks; Cannon-Brookes stated, "The lack of a banking API in Australia is crazy."; Australian banks make approximately AU$1,000 in profit per person, per year and their profits equate to 2.9% of GDP; this is due to the lack of competition and heavy regulations in the banking sector, according to Cannon-Brookes. Source
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SmartCompany is a leading Australian news site about entrepreneurship; their annual Smart50 awards for the 50 fastest-growing small businesses include several fintech companies; small business online lenders Prospa and GetCapital came in first and second this year; their revenues were AUS$22 million and AUS$4.5 million respectively; also on the list are foreign exchange/money transfer company TorX at number five and traditional asset financier Positive Lending Solutions at number six. Source
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For the second quarter, Yirendai reported revenue of $174.5 million, beating estimates by $16.36 million and increasing revenue 58% from the second quarter of 2016; earnings per share remained steady at $0.66 and beat earnings estimates by $0.04; the company reported loans originated of $1.2 billion in the second quarter, an increase of 80% in comparison to the second quarter of 2016. Source
Lend Academy Article: Hongling Capital: The Worst Victim of China’s P2P Lending Regulatory Crackdown
China's P2P platform Hongling Capital is shutting down; Lend Academy details its business highlights and subsequent shutdown in their article; continued losses, large loans and payment guarantees were a few of the factors that led to its closing; the article also highlights some of the issues with guaranteeing principal or interest and includes Hongling's plans for the future. Source
New York-based commercial real estate developer Tishman Speyer has partnered with CreditEase Wealth Management to invest $1.4 billion in China and other countries within the next three years; according to Tang Ning, CreditEase founder and CEO, the partnership will focus on long-term development, providing clients with globalized and diverse portfolios. Source
RateSetter now has over 2,000 broker dealers supporting loan originations on its platform with loans from the intermediaries doubling approximately every six months; top reasons for the borrowing from this channel include vehicle loans, home improvement and debt consolidation; firm has also lent $150 million since its launch in 2014. Source